Cleartrip, a Flipkart company, recently came up with its ‘Ab desh sochega nahi, seedha book karega!’ campaign on the occasion of The Big Billion Days, the parent company’s brand-named shopping event. The campaign revolves around the idea of making travel bookings as easy and impulsive as grabbing a last-minute deal at a favourite store. The campaign also reintroduced the “kidults” concept (Flipkart used the term to convey that e-commerce is as easy as child’s play, allowing for creative and visually appealing storytelling).
Kunal Dubey, Cleartrip’s chief marketing officer, spoke to Storyboard18 about the genesis of the campaign, how the traveller is evolving, and shared what differentiates Cleartrip from its competitors. Edited excerpts:
What was the rationale behind the new campaign? What were the consumer insights that went into its making?
Travel has been a very high-involvement category. The number of days one takes to plan their travel is far more than the number of days of travel itself. With Big Billion Days, the base philosophy for Flipkart from a marketing perspective has been to change the norms and to shape behaviours. While ideating about the campaign, we pondered upon what that one behaviour is that we want to shape and we realised that travel is everything but an impulse category. It is not like how you shop for groceries or how you shop on (fashion portal) Myntra or Flipkart on the occasion of The Big Billion Days. Travel is still the most talked-about category from a conversation standpoint, more than shopping.
Is there an opportunity for us during the festive period, can we create a highly incremental campaign, can this be a starting point? These were some of the questions we were asking. Can travel become an impulse category, was another important thought. If you look at the offerings that we are giving during this festive period, across all hotels and flights, if the customer is doing last-minute cancellations, they are getting full and instant refunds. The deal that you get in this period, you will not get again for a long time. This is the right time to keep looking.
On New Year’s, if you book five places and in the end just go to one place, you cancel the four. Turning travel into an impulse, by articulating the campaign line Ab desh sochega nahi, seedha book karega? has been everything that we have been attempting to do.
What are consumers looking for from a brand like Cleartrip?
India is a value-driven market. Value is exactly how you can help the consumer reduce the booking price or offer something additional and keep the price offering the same across all OTAs (online travel agencies). Price cannot be a differentiation in the end. You have to unlock the value for consumers. Keeping this in mind, we look at the value we have to offer. Take CT upgrades, for example—you will get a free meal and a free seat during the festive period. Second is affordability, you can access EMIs (equated monthly instalments) across all debit and credit cards. It’s a big proposition and it’s become the backbone for Flipkart. We already see double-digit growth in this affordability construct. Even flexibility values like ‘Cancel for no reason’ which we have just launched for hotels, even if you reach the hotels, just before checking in, you can cancel the booking and don’t have to give a reason. Flex Max (offer on flights), no-cost EMIs… These in my mind are the winners. c In the end, unlocking value will be a key differentiator and that is what Cleartrip is focusing on.
Who is your ideal customer?
For a long time, our ideal target audience was people in the age bracket of 25-44 in metro and tier 1 cities. But we have broadened our TG (target group) in the market since the time we introduced bus services. A lot more younger audiences are coming in. Currently, we operate from an 18-45 age bracket in metro and tier one city category itself.
If you talk about the type of traveller, for us right now the leisure traveller makes greater business than a business traveller.
Which are the top markets for Cleartrip? Can you share the market size of the OTA category?
In the domestic segment, our top markets are metros and beyond like Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Goa, Kochi, Ahmedabad. Internationally, it’s the UAE, Canada, UK and Thailand. The travel industry currently stands at 49 billion USD.
Air, hotel, bus and trains, have around 26 percent market penetration in the OTA category i.e. roughly around 13 billion USD. In the travel category, the OTA market is expected to grow by 20 percent, which is higher than the overall travel market.
How has the traveller evolved, especially post-pandemic?
Affordability and flexibility have been a crucial factor post-pandemic. More than 60 percent of international leisure travellers are first-time travellers. The intent to go international is far higher. People are looking for micro more than macro holiday trends. They are also looking to upgrade their travel experience overall. They are taking more short trips, earlier the market used to be timed to certain occasions for travel. The number of leisure trips taken by a customer in tier 2 and 3 towns is only 20 percent less than from a tier 1 location. Thus, the propensity to travel is increasing day by day. Also, the buy now, pay later schemes are the backbone of our growth right now.
How much do you invest on marketing? What is your current focus in terms of marketing?
I have always focused on a digital-first approach even when I was in Flipkart. I believe more than how much one is investing, what is important to consider is what your addressable audience is in your category, at what frequency those audiences are addressed on those platforms. The hotels segment has an audience of around 80-90 million. If I can reach out to 70-80 percent of this universe with a good campaign and frequency, the job is done.
If I take a cricket, IPL (Indian Premier League) sponsorship versus a digital campaign, the investment will differ but the audience will see the messaging on the right platforms. So rather than how much we are investing, the question is, are we investing to all the right cohorts with an aggressive frequency? The answer is yes.
What are some key marketing strategies you are pursuing?
Cleartrip campaigns are focused on the premise of making travel simple for consumers. That has been in our DNA always. That is what we are doing for Flipkart’s Big Billion Day campaign as well. Shopping on an e-commerce platform is impulsive, travel bookings are not. Through our marketing approach, we want to drive the message that travel can be an impulse buying category. Our focus is on giving customers an -free experience and full control of their bookings.
The innovation we have done in the one and half years on the affordability side and value side…after listening to consumers include bringing the right value offering through city upgrades, tatkal upgrade, all the portfolios of no-cost EMIs and cancel for no reason. Cleartrip’s superior deals with airlines and hotels also play a role.
Any plans on the AI front?
I have been using AI in personalisation of campaigns right from 2016, before AI became mainstream. In 2018, Flipkart did a campaign on 3 million personalised digital ads over three weeks. That scope has increased now. At Cleartrip, human insights are developed by us. For brainstorming sessions, creative and campaign development, we use AI products. AI tools are adding a lot of value in optimising spends. We are just touching the tip of the iceberg given how fast AI technology is growing right now.